Hello all, hope you're all doing okay, and looking forward to seeing you on 'the other side' soon. Thought I'd post you my birth story at long last......
27th October, never felt so tired, my eldest son woke me up saying there was a phone call for me.........it was 11.45am! Have not had a lie in like that since before my 1st child. Still felt incredibly tired and stayed like that for rest of the day, and burst into tears at one point too, just generally overwhelmed. Could hardly walk either from such discomfort 'down below'. Went to bed early with some BH and a hot water bottle against my back to ease. (Thought I'd add this bit too as it sounds v.like what you guys are experiencing at the moment..)
28th October woke at 4am with same mild BH but mind very alert and thinking 'this is the day'. Spent quite a long time on loo (sorry tmi) and had beginnings of a show.... small streaks of blood on discharge. This continued until 7am while I nested madly as rest of family slept. Woke up husband with cup of tea and told him baby would be coming in the next 12-24 hours. Rang my mum to tell her the same, she said she'd come down from Brighton about midday. Then started to ring friends to look after my other children (pre-arranged), as they'd told me they'd rather not be at the birth. This proved pretty stressful as I was a week early and it was still half term and a lot of people were away on holiday, and one of my children's best friend had v. bad dose of chicken pox! Managed to find fun arrangements for all by 1pm....phew! Husband off at shops getting Oral Vitamin K and other 'last minute' stuff..........Mum arrives and wants to get the midwife straight away even though I tell her I estimate I'm only in the early stages of labour and about 2cm at this stage. She is too anxious and is making me tense, so I call the midwife to check in and tell her I'm in early stages. Husband comes home from shops, and makes roasted pumpkin soup for lunch, mmmmm. Midwives call round at 3.30pm to assess me and confirm I'm in early stages at 2/3 cm and go away again. Mother is more relaxed. Labour progressing well until @10pm when I feel they're strong enough that I'd like a midwife present. Husband rings delivery suite only to be told they are very busy & short staffed and they'll 'let us know' if/when they can send out a midwife. After an hour with now call from midwives my labour is becoming erratic and I'm starting to flag and feel unsure as to what I should be doing, don't feel confident to progress as mother is panicking and asking me lots of questions, 'what do we do if the waters burst?''What if the baby comes and the midwife isn't here?' etc 'Shall I call them again?'(every 5 mins). She calls them at @ 11.30pm and puts the wind up them...... and 3/4 hour later a midwife arrives. My mum runs to the door like a lottery winner, 'They're here! They're here!"
PHEW!
29th October@ 12.00am Feel very disheartened after examination as am only 3/4 cm dilated with baby's head still presenting some brow and needing to move to present the crown still, and contractions feel like 6cm ones, feel embarassed and hope she doesn't go away again but then put back on confident track by midwife who says that she would expect this labour to be a bit more like my first and slightly longer as I've had a 7 year gap since the last one. She's really nice and v. positive and calm and my contractions start to come thick and fast, real leg wobblers. Use my husband for support and poke my finger in his eye (by mistake....) at one point. We are standing facing each other in our tiny bedroom. Then I remember what the midwife said about the baby's head needing to move slightly so I kneel down on the floor facing the bed and bury my head in the duvet and start rocking and rotating my pelvis, 2 MASSIVE contractions arrive one on top of the other ( talk to myself saying 'it's okay, it's okay and breating through them) and then are suddenly gone, I feel like my labour has stopped again for about 10 seconds and then a strange feeling comes upon me as I feel the baby's head literally slide through my cervix and into the birth canal....... it's really the most amazing thing I've ever felt, quite awesome, WOW! No pain. Then, the contractions start again but have me pushing at the height of each one. Remember what that woman Sheila Kitzinger(sp?) said and try to let the baby ease out using gravity, this is very helpful and much easier than times before I tell the midwife the baby is coming as she realises the situation and starts to ring the hospital for back up. She has one hand holding the mobile phone over my head while her other hand is poised to catch the baby. My husband has one arm being gripped by me on the bed and the other hand dialling numbers on the midwife's phone for her over my head, LOL! 4 mins later at 1.39am, baby Elizabeth is born, no rips or tears, in our bedroom with me kneeling and the cord wrapped around her neck, she cries straight away & opens her eyes and gets an apgar score of 10/10! She weighs 7lbs 4oz. The midwife lets me have a natural 3rd stage, declares the placenta 'a Beauty!' ... "the most bloodless birth" she's ever seen, and a "beautiful long cord".......... I feel almost as proud of all that as I do of the baby! My mum comes running in and is thrilled, husband in tears of joy, and I feel completely fabulous and pysically so relieved and marvellous it's an incomparable feeling really.
Midwives tidy and write notes/run me a lovely deep bath. Husband dresses baby, mum makes tea & jam on toast.
Midwives gone & whole family tucked up in bed by 2.45am..... needless to say I am far too excited to sleep!
And everything's been just great since................
Good luck with your births ladies, looking forward to hearing all your news. Loads of positive vibes and support to you!